Eleanor Guthrie (Hannah New)

Eleanor Guthrie was introduced in the pilot as the wealthiest black marketeer in the Bahamas and the chief fence/supplier for the pirate crews. She wielded considerable influence, and was the lover of the cunning prostitute Max. When Max and Eleanor’s aspirations started to conflict, their relationship, and Max’s well-being, took a turn for the worse. Max pleaded with Eleanor to leave the island with her and start a new life, but was turned down. Feeling betrayed, Max snuck out of the brothel but was caught and imprisoned by Eleanor’s ex-lover Charles Vane and his men.

When a meeting was set up to discuss business with Vane, Eleanor was impressed by Vane’s “proper” behavior, she approached him and the two made love. However, the moment was spoiled when she heard screaming from outside the tent. The screaming was coming from Max, who was being sexually assaulted in the street by some of Vane’s men, and Eleanor soon realized that Vane had kidnapped Max and was letting his men use her for sport. Eleanor made a public declaration blacklisting Vane and his crew from doing business ever again on the island. Max, still hurt from Eleanor’s rejection and feeling guilty for Vane losing his crew, offered to remain Vane’s captive until her debt was paid off. While “paying off” her debt, she continued to be abused by Vane’s crew, and with Eleanor’s help, Anne Bonny eventually rescued Max.

Season 2

Eleanor and Vane became business partners and rekindled their affair, but it ended when Eleanor rescued a woman kidnapped by Vane and left him locked up to be captured by his own men. He escaped and murdered her father in retaliation for the betrayal. Later in the season, Eleanor was arrested by the English and was shipped to England to await execution.

Season 3

Eleanor was visited in her cell by Woodes Rogers, the new governor of New Providence Island who offered her a full pardon in exchange for help restoring order to Nassau.

On the return journey to Nassau, Rogers and Eleanor grew closer and eventually became lovers; when Rogers and Eleanor arrived with his fleet, they survived an attack by Vane and the pirates and Vane was captured. In charge of Nassau due to Rogers’ illness, Eleanor fast-tracked Vane’s trial and conviction overnight. As they prepared to hang Vane, Max, now the owner of the tavern and with considerable political power herself, tried to warn Eleanor of the dangerous path she was on. Eleanor refused to listen, and they watched as Vane delivered a calm, heart-wrenching speech designed to stir up a rebellion, before dying on the gallows. When Rogers finally recovered, he agreed with her decision to publicly hang Vane, despite the fact that his death had triggered a pirate rebellion in Nassau.

Season 4

Season 4 started with Eleanor married to Woodes Rogers. Eleanor reinvented herself acting as Woodes’ docile wife, sitting silently with her needlepoint. In private, she stood up for Max and defended her at the end of the episode.

In 4×04, Eleanor fled to Fort Nassau as Nassau was overtaken by pirates, took charge of the remnants of the Governor’s redcoats, and discovered Max was missing. She was offered a trade, 20 captured pirates for Max, and after the exchange she and Max shared a quiet moment. Eleanor revealed she was pregnant with Rogers’ child, and she and Max came up with a plan to leave Nassau for good, with Eleanor asking “Where would we have gone?” had she fled with Max in Season 1.

Eleanor was killed off in 4×06.

Appearances:

27 episodes. Series regular on all 3 seasons.

Female love interests:

Max (Jessica Parker Kennedy, main cast)

Relationship story arc with a woman: No

Male love interests:

Charles Vane 💀 (Zach McGowan, main cast S1-3)

Woodes Rogers (Luke Roberts, main cast, husband)

Relationship story arc with a man: Yes

Filter Relationship Arc:

[1] A relationship story arc is defined as explicit, developed on screen, and lasting more than 3 episodes. It is listed as questionable or subtext if romance is only implied, mentioned instead of shown on screen, part of a dream sequence, or otherwise not explicit for the viewer.[2] Sweeps episodes air in February, May, July and November, the periods when advertising rates are set. A character is marked as "sweeps" when there is a very limited number of episodes that address their sexuality, all air during sweeps period, and the storyline is otherwise ignore/dropped.